Saturday, December 16, 2006

Wow! It was hot on the Hill at the WACA in Perth on day 2. The coolest place in the grounds was the Museum which was stuffed with cricketing memorabilia. Things like the aluminium bat, used by Perth's greatest test wicket taker and now President of WA Cricket Association, Denis Lillee, rubbed shoulders with a Dickie Bird toby jug, and the first cricketing photo in WA. The amazing collection is housed in the original Curator's (what we in the UK call the Groundsman) cottage. After half an hour cooling down in there you felt able to face the searing heat on the closely mown hill again. Perhaps in my chill out sessions tomorrow I'll find out the significance of the Manchester United badges!

We walked to the ground from our hotel in Adelaide Terrace. The 15 minutes stroll took us through Queens Gardens which has a signed replica of the Peter Pan statue that is in Kensington Gardens. It is surrounded by giant cricketing figures marked out in the grass.

We got to the ground early and staked our claim to space by spreading our rather smart Vasse Felix picnic blanket. Being on the Hill was actually much more comfortable than the tightly packed plastic seats we have so far encountered in Brisbane and Adelaide. Perth is the smallest ground in the series, we like it a lot, its a strong candidate to be our favourite ground. It has a capacityu of about 24,000 with the temporary seating up for The Ashes, which is about the same size as Edgbaston in the UK.

Highlights of the day for us:

Kevin Pieterson's 70 - in particular one over of 17 off Shane Warne and in the same over he was dropped by McGrath.

The last wicket stand of 40 between Monty and Harmison, the highest stand of the innings, including a couple of classic shots from Monty for four - who said he can't bat!

Some rally good Australian bowling kept the pressure on in the morning when they got 4 wickets.

Unbeaten stand of 115 stand between Ponting and Hayden after Langer was out for a Golden Duck bowled by Hoggard in the second innings.

Its Day 3 now and we have tickets. The late start of 11.30 means we can go shopping beforehand......

Connecting to the Internet is proving both problematic and expensive here in Perth. You would think being the most isolated city in the world that it would make more of an effort to provide easily access to the Internet. Not a bit of it, there is a so called Metromesh but it is trying to charge me through the nose and I'm not paying. So photos etc. will have to wait till we are back in Dunsborough.